Yin-Yang: The Borders Of Corruption
by The unwritten promise
Summary: What changed? Everything. Why? Because of him. He ruined everything. And now he has the nerve to stand there with that smug grin in that damn uniform and chastise me about my life? Nu-uh. I don't think so.


**Yin-Yang, The Borders Of Corruption**

The black ribbon sky was alight with diamonds. Sparkling, flickering, obscurely shaped, pin-prick diamonds. The moon was a giant opal in the night sky; it's mirrored reflection swimming in the soft glass lake that rippled smoothly in the centre of the surrounding forest. From within the trees the darkness shrouded and encompassed together before it swallowed the light and skulked back into the shade beneath the overhanging forest canopy where it waited with solemn, hungry eyes.

On all sides of the lake the bushes grew tall and the grass thin and weedy, causing the thin blades of tickling grass to shiver and quake in a breeze so thin it failed to move the clouds across the sky. The silence was so thick it sank like a stone to the bottom of the lake, wherein even the strongest of fish dare not rise bubbles against it. But there was something in the grass; something that dared to break the silence with an alluring smile.

A young boy no older than six sat up and yawned heavily, stretching his arms upwards past his blonde hair with the jutting out jade of green strands nestled beneath like a birds nest. Behind him the grass remained flat and interwoven like a bed of straw and his soft hands began to pull up a few of the blades and tie them in knots as soft blue eyes peeked over the tall grass; searching. Finally they met their mark where a dent in the grass shuffled and wriggled. Pulling the grass apart like curtains, he smiled at the lazily dozing nine year old redhead.

Frowning at his friends soft snores, he crawled forwards and poked him lightly. The redhead rolled over, batting the annoying digit away and mumbling before he groaned when it refused to give up.

"Wha' ya want, Rox?"

The voice was drawled out with a thick tongue, and as the redhead turned to blink dazedly up at the blonde emerald eyes opened, and for a small moment the stars where no longer the brightest gem in the world. The blonde pulled a pout across his angel face, his lower lip sticking out almost sulkily before it was replaced with a smile and a giggle as he pounced on top of his friend. The redhead yelped and sat bolt upright as soft blue eyes glared at him with as much anger that could be brought forth from a vessel of innocence as was possible. "You promised! It's our last night together and you said you'd stay up all night with me." Roxas poked the belly he was laid on gently, his small round chubby face breaking into a smile once more. "Thought you always said you kept your promises, Ax?"

"I do…" Axel broke off and yawned loudly into the back of his hand, leaning back with his arms behind his head. Closing his eyes, he let out a sigh. "I was just resting my eyes for a moment 's'all."

There was silence once more, and the weight on his stomach shifted further up his chest. Axel didn't need to open his eyes to know the blonde was mere centimetres from his face again; his lack of understanding on the concept of personal space coming in to play again. It was one of the few things about the innocence Roxas held that made him so irresistible; because no matter how many times he looked at something, and no matter how dark it may appear, he always somehow managed to find the light hiding within, and he always brought that out first. The blonde was polite and slightly pudgy around the edges, plush and cuddly and adorable to a standstill, his eyes a perfect deep blue and round and wide like a curious deer's and his skin so white and perfectly smooth that the moon couldn't so much as hold a candle to it.

It was why Axel felt the need to be so close to him. Because Axel was imperfect; the complete opposite of Roxas. His skin was a sickly white and his body skinny to the point where people questioned him over his health, his eyes were a striking emerald that contrasted greatly with his fire red hair and made him nothing if not noticeable. He was outspoken, honest, opinionated, and very outgoing; which hadn't boded well with the people of their small town, and his constant thirst for mischief had him forever locked in trouble; often with his sidekick best friend tagging along for the thrill of the ride.

"Ax, why you gotta go?"

Peeking an eye open, Axel was met once more with two wide round sapphires inches from his own. Sitting up, he watched as Roxas slid down into his lap where he waited with that oh-so curious gaze that often led him into trouble. "Because," he picked Roxas up and placed him in the grass beside him, "mum's left and me and Reno are going to live with her."

The pout was back on sad satin lips. "Can't you stay with your dad? Then we could see each other all the time."

Axel shook his head, pulling up fistfuls of grass and earth as he looked over their small sanctuary to the crystal lake. "Uh-uh. Mum wants us to go with her."

"But why is she taking you away?"

Axel reflected back on the time when he had asked his dad the exact same question. It had come after all of the yelling and screaming had stopped; when the breaking lamps smashing against walls and the all night crying that stained his bed sheets until he had to share Reno's covers had faded into a blank memory. His mum had left two weeks ago, and now she was sending for him and Reno to go live life up in some fancy city away from their father, away from their home, and away from Roxas. Because she 'knew what was best'. His father had said it with a bitter tone, and Axel often found himself internally questioning the change in the man after his mother's leave. But he wouldn't openly ask his father. He wasn't near brave enough for that.

There was a light tugging on his shirt and Axel looked down at the small fingers that held on tightly. "Axel, I don't want you to go away."

"I have to." He caught Roxas' small face glance down at the dirt and it broke his heart a little. He had been friends with Roxas for as long as he could remember, and he couldn't imagine comprehending a time when he would have to wake up every day without scoffing down breakfast and running off to the orphanage down the road to wake up his best friend who always slept in. And he didn't want to either. He nudged the blonde softly with his elbow and grinned. "But we'll see each other again. I promise. I'll be coming back with Reno to see dad every couple of weeks and I'm sure we could hang out."

"You mean it?"

"Of course! I always keep my promises, remember?" Reaching inside his t-shirt, Axel pulled out a long silver chain with a small black and white symbol attached to it. Immediately, almost as if he was a magpie, Roxas' eyes were drawn to it. He shuffled closer to Axel and peered closely, watching as the redhead stuck out his tongue and began to bend the pendant with a frustrated frown.

"Axel! Don't do that, you'll break it!" There was a loud _snap_, and Roxas' smile fell as he looked at the broken chain in his friend's hand. "What did you do that for?"

Axel grinned triumphantly. The black piece of the circle pendant was still attached to the silver chain, and the white piece rested in his hand. Before he snapped it the line had been perfect, but now the plastic remained jagged and sharp. Holding up the black piece, he showed it to his friend. "Reno told me that this is a yin-yang symbol. It means that for every possible action, there's a reaction, and one can't survive without the other." He took Roxas' small hand and opened it, placing the necklace with the black piece against his small palm before he closed the blonde's fingers about it and smiled. "So if you take this piece, and I'll take my piece and put it on a chain when I get home, we'll always find each other again. But you gotta promise not to ever take it off, 'kay? Otherwise the magic won't work."

Roxas nodded with a small frown of confusion on his face; but he never questioned his best friend. He uncurled his hand and placed the chain over his head. Tucking it in his shirt, he felt it fall and dangle down his chest where it rested just above his belly button. Giggling, he held his arms across his chest and smiled. " 'S cold, Ax."

"It's cuz the magic hasn't started yet."

"The magic?"

"Uh-huh. That's how it works. The magic will help us find each other again." Axel was old enough to know that magic didn't work in the world he lived in. That he was moving away with his mother, and that the chances of him coming back were slim at best. But in Roxas' world, in Roxas' acquitted and naïve world, magic still remained. And as long as he held onto it, Axel knew he could only ever do well.

Before he knew it he found himself piled on once more by his friend, chubby arms wrapped about him tight as they squeezed him and held him close. A voice spoke up through his shirt and Axel had to listen hard to make out the muffled words, but when he caught them, and he heard them, he knew he'd never let them go. " 'M, gonna miss ya, Axel."

He wrapped his arms around the small frame, hugging back just as tight. "I'm gonna miss you too, Rox."

* * *

It was early in the morning, and Axel waited outside his house with his father and his twelve year old brother Reno in the small red car that would take them to the station which would take them to their new life. Anxiously, he stared up the road, fiddling with the white section of his pendant which Reno had once again informed him was the yin piece – although he didn't quite understand what the difference was between the two pieces – which meant Roxas had the yang piece.

He flinched as thunder rang heavily above him and his father shouted from the car for him to hurry up before his mother threw a 'hissy fit'. But he had to try and hold on for as long as possible. Roxas would come. He knew he would. He just had to turn up and see him off.

But the longer he waited the more threatening the thunder became and the more impatient his father grew. He walked slowly from the path, tearing his eyes away and giving quick glances over his shoulder as he approached the car. But again the dusty road remained silent. Opening the car door, he slipped inside next to Reno and closed it with a heavy _thunk_. As soon as he was safe inside and strapped to the seat by his seatbelt his father pulled out of the driveway, flicked on the radio, and sped off in the opposite direction, snapping at Axel to pull his face away from the window before it smudged the glass.

Axel obeyed quietly, still fiddling with the chain about his neck. Beside him Reno dozed in the early hours of the morning and rain began to splatter against the glass. On any normal day Axel would have kicked up a fuss just to be heard, to push his brother's buttons and see his father lose his rag just for the sake of some humour. But today everything was different. His father's friendly smile was gone, his brother's life all but drained, and he couldn't find the energy in his soul to do anything but sit and stare at the jagged white yin symbol in the palm of his hand.

Roxas hadn't shown up. And he hadn't slept in either – he knew because he had rung the orphanage and they had said he had left earlier that morning. So where was he? Why hadn't he shown up? Had their friendship meant that little to him? Or was it because he was too young to understand that Axel wouldn't be coming back like he had promised; not since the phone call his father had received had him yelling down the cordless phone to his mother that she could keep them, that he didn't want anything more to do with any of them, and that he hoped she rotted in hell.

No, Axel wouldn't be coming back. He closed his hand about his piece of the pendant and held it close to his chest. He didn't believe in magic, but there was hope in that small white piece of plastic. Hope that maybe one day, when he was older, and he had a job and lots of money and his own place, he could come back for Roxas, and he could save him from the orphanage and they would never be alone again. And they could hide out forever in their secret spot and stare up at the stars in their own little world.

But for now it was time for Axel to grow up. He had a whole new life waiting for him. And he would be facing it on his own.

* * *

Hope anyone who read this enjoyed!


End file.
